New videos: Many called for help in kidnapping of Bethany Arceneaux

Recordings of emergency phone calls made in the frantic minutes following the Nov. 6 kidnapping of Bethany Arceneaux reveal that several people tried to call for police help before Scott Thomas, 29, disappeared with the young mother that day. The recordings were released Thursday by Lafayette police at the request of The Daily Advertiser.

Arceneaux was eventually rescued by family members and her abductor killed during a Nov. 8 confrontation with the family at an isolated, ramshackle house near Duson, where Thomas had kept the victim. Authorities said Thomas’ death, which followed a confrontation with the family, was likely done in defense of the victim. They said they would not charge the family member.

Callers who witnessed the Nov. 6 kidnapping or became alarmed during Thomas’ mad flight from the scene were sometimes frantic as they called 911 and explained how Arceneaux, 29, was assaulted, then thrown into Thomas’ vehicle at a daycare center in the 500 block of Madeline Avenue in Lafayette.

“There’s a man beating a woman over here,” one caller yelled to the operator. Another woman said, “Oh my God” under her breath as she described Arceneaux hanging from the car.

The operator handling the call asked one caller if anyone needs an ambulance and the caller responded, “Ma’am, I don’t know,” then explained that Thomas was beating the victim. “The woman is screaming,” he said.

“Y’all need to hurry up ma’am because that is like dangerous. So many cars have almost gotten into wrecks because of this. The girl is like hanging out the car. He might run over her with the car,” the caller continued.

Another caller said Thomas, in escaping the scene, turned on to a one-way street at a high rate of speed and almost struck his vehicle.

“They were about to hit me. I had to swerve out the way ‘cause he was coming head on,” he said.

“I think he had kind of ran over her leg a little bit,” another caller suggested.

More than a dozen calls were made to the emergency number that afternoon. The recordings do not note the time the calls were made that day.

Authorities located Thomas’ car about 7:30 p.m. Nov. 6 on Anderson Road in Duson, but family members searching for the victim did not find her until two days later.